This blog is aimed mainly at advanced students of English as a foreign / second language, although it will hopefully also be of some interest to teachers. I intend it to be a mishmash of lessons, exercises and the occasional opinionated rant about the English language.

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Friday, December 26, 2014

Doing a Google site search of TripAdvisor the other day, I noticed that on the first search page for 'the person whom', this expression was used more often to refer to the subject than to the object, in other words incorrectly, in structures like this:

She is the woman whom runs the hotel.

Which should of course be:

She is the woman who/that runs the hotel.

I know whom causes problems, but I hadn't realised quite to what an extent.

So I decided to try with a couple of other similar expressions, and compare with Facebook and Twitter.

I realise that many of the contributors to these sites are non-native speakers, and in no way do I want to mock anyone by quoting them, whether English is their first or second language, and I have nothing but respect for people who make the effort to write in a language other than their own. I just want to point out the dangers of using whom unless you really know what you're doing.

A quick reminder of the rules

we use who (or that) to begin the relative clause when talking of a person:

She is the woman who/that spoke to us yesterday. (subject)

They're the people (who/that) we saw at the marina. (direct object)

He's the man (who/that) I was talking about. (object of preposition)

we use which (or that) when talking about anything else:

That's the car which/that won the race. (subject)

This is just the sort of situation (which/that) I wanted to avoid. (direct object)

I found that book (which/that) I was looking for. (object of preposition)

When the relative pronoun refers to the direct object or the object of a preposition, it can be left out:

They're the people we saw at the marina. (direct object)

I found that book I was looking for. (object of preposition)

In a very formal style we can use whom for people when the relative pronoun refers to the direct object or object of a preposition, but not when it refers to the subject. However, this is never necessary, as we can use who/that or omit the pronoun altogether, and native speakers very rarely use whom in these constructions.

The only exception is if the relative pronoun follows a preposition, and we usually avoid having to use whom by putting the preposition at the end (known as preposition stranding) - 'Who did you speak to?' (more natural than 'To whom did you speak?'

Tip - never use whom immediately before a verb

If you must use whom, never use it when the relative pronoun is followed immediately by a verb, as the relative pronoun can only be referring to the subject:

She is the woman who/thatruns the hotel.

She is the woman whom runs the hotel.

The breakdown

TripAdvisor

Facebook

Twitter

Total

the person whom - object

4

10

5

19

the person whom - subject

6

0

5

11

the woman whom - object

5

7

6

18

the woman whom - subject

5

3

3

11

the man whom - object

1

5

5

11

the man whom - subject

7

4

5

16

Total - object

10

22

16

48

Total - subject

18

7

13

38

Total - indirect

1

1

1

3

Total - ambiguous

1

1

Percentage subject

60

23

53

42

So in these examples at least, and there's no way to know whether these figures are at all representative, in around 42% of instances (rising to 60% at TripAdvisor), whom is being used to refer to the subject, and therefore is being used incorrectly.

Comments

I can only assume that a lot of people think that whom is simply a more formal version of who, and are unaware of the subject / object difference (I seem to remember having seen such a suggestion in forums).

But why bother with whom at all? Except in formal writing, whom is never necessary. We can nearly always use who, which is in any case more natural. And if the relative pronoun is followed by a noun or pronoun (in other words, it refers to the object), we can simply leave it out altogether - 'He is the man I love' (nobody says, let alone sings, the man whom I love).

Even when whom was being used correctly in these examples, it was never necessary. In none of these examples does whom follow a preposition, so it could have been omitted in every instance.

Most native speakers use whom rarely in conversation. And if you do use it without really knowing the rules, the risk of getting it wrong seems from these figures to be rather high.

Some random thoughts on indirect structures

I've signalled three examples as being indirect structures:

The man whom I assumeis the owner of the establishment is very rude

... is the man whom I thinkis totally mine

to the woman whom I'm surewill be my step-mother one day

Conventional wisdom says that whom is incorrect here, and that who is necessary because, as I understand it, the relative pronoun's function as the subject of the underlined section outweighs any need for the reporting clause (assume, think, be sure - in darker blue) to have an object. And we would certainly need who (or that) if we took away the reporting clause:

The man who/that is the owner of the establishment is very rude

... is the man who/that is totally mine

to the woman who/that will be my step-mother one day

This use of whom here is often called hypercorrection. But there is a bit of a difference of opinion here, and not everyone agrees that it is in fact an error. For example, the relative pronoun can be omitted, which usually applies to whom but not to who when it refers to the subject.

The man I assume is the owner of the establishment is very rude

... is the man I think is totally mine

to the woman I'm sure will be my step-mother one day

But again, whom is probably best avoided.

The examples

I've taken the first ten examples of each expression, except where there was repetition. Of the three sites I looked at, TripAdvisor is where incorrect use of whom is most evident. I've replaced names with an X.

I didn't include what were obviously biblical quotes, and references to a certain Ian Doyle, a singer who goes by the name of 'The Man Whom'.

Examples of whom being incorrectly used to refer to the subject are underlined.

At Tripadvisor.co.uk

Totals

Refers to object - 10

Refers to subject - 18

Indirect structure - 1

Ambiguous - 1

the person whom

The person whom is staying at the room and i the person whom is holding the hotel card , both of us equally shocked

Especially the person whom we had to deal with in ...

Uncule Ji the person whom you will meet In Hotel Chail Residence

The person whom takes care of the breakfast is ...

The person whom wrote the report ...

Then the person behind the desk insisted on speaking with the person whom I was sharing the room with

The person whom was checking me in seemed somewhat perhaps uncomfortable on the checking in process

... kept blocking the access for the person whom had booked ...

He is the person whom I gonna nominate for the best hospitality specialist in the world

the person whom assisted me at the front desk was very helpful

Refers to object - 2, 3, 6, 9

Refers to subject - 1 (x2), 4, 5, 7, 8, 10

the woman whom

the woman whom helped me was very nice

Back at the hotel ... I met the woman whom Neil (knew?) nothing about

The woman whom checked me in during the night shift was...

I arrived with my Son and found a less than welcoming feeling procured by the Woman whom was running the restauraunt

The woman whom I dated sayed that it is enjoyable , soft atmosphere like traweling in india.

Finally I offered to buy two deck chairs for the man and the woman whom we "assaulted"

The woman whom placed this review was renting rooms without my knowledge

The woman whom we asked if we could sit anywhere we wanted did not reply.

The woman whom we took to be the restaurant manager was hopeless

the woman whom checked us out told us that ...

Refers to object - 2, 5, 6, 8, 9

Refers to subject - 1, 3, 4, 7, 10

the man whom

The man whom supposedly cleaned the room need ...

The man whom I assume is the owner of the establishment is very rude

... where I told the man (whom is suppose to be the manager)

... from the man whom insisted on pressing my trousers for me to ...

the man whom poured the wines and the bread/cheese man were lovely

this is the man whom should be running our great country.

Overall, the man whom served us was an obnoxious, unfriendly excuse of a man!

the mood of our server as well as the man whom brought out our food changed

However the man whom first approached us came first and asked about our plans

10 comments:

Far be it for me to correct a piece of writing thousands of years old (and this translation is perhaps a hundred years old). But luckily I don't have to, as the use of 'whom' here is perfectly correct. 'Beside' is a preposition, and prepositions are followed by the object form (objective case), 'beside him / her / me / whom' etc.

Although in everyday English most of us try and avoid this by putting the preposition at the end - 'Who were you sitting beside?', that wouldn't work here (in a non-defining relative clause), and in any case this is poetry, and it sounds perfect just as it is.

Dear Warsaw Will, I want to communicate with you and I have some interesting and important questions and topics to share with you and they even don't exist in your blog .I'm really fond of your style of work and looking forward to hearing from you .please don't ignore my comment bye...

I can only assume that a lot of people think that whom is simply a more formal version of who, and are unaware of the subject / object difference I seem to remember having seen such a suggestion in forums.

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Hi. I'm a common-or-garden TEFL teacher living and working in Poland. My background is British, Scottish to be precise.
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